The initial public offering of state-run reinsurance firm General Insurance Corp of India (GIC Re) was covered 80% on the opening day on Wednesday thanks to strong demand from institutional investors.

The IPO received bids for nearly 100 million shares for the 124.7 million shares on offer, stock-exchange data showed.

The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers received bids for 1.55 times the 62.27 million shares on offer. Retail investors, whose bid value cannot exceed Rs 2 lakh per application, bid for 5.6% of the shares reserved for them.

The non-institutional investors’ category, comprising high net-worth individuals and corporate bodies, bid for a handful of shares on the first day. HNIs typically bid on the final day of a public offering to minimise their IPO financing costs.

Mumbai-based GIC has set a price band for its IPO at Rs 855-912 per share. The IPO will close on 13 October.

The offering comprises a fresh sale of shares worth Rs 1,568 crore and an offer for sale worth Rs 9,804 crore by the government. The public offer will result in a 14.22% stake dilution. The government will get three years from the listing date to meet the minimum public shareholding norms of 25%.

GIC Re, the 12th largest reinsurance firm globally by gross premium written, joins a growing list of Indian insurance firms that have either firmed up plans for a public offering or have already gone public.

Meanwhile, the IPO of Indian Energy Exchange Ltd, which counts private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt. Ltd and a bunch of other investment firms as backers, sailed through on the final day with support from institutional and retail investors. HNIs, however, stayed away.

The revised public offering of 5.27 million shares, excluding the anchor allotment, received bids for 11.9 million shares, stock exchange data showed. The book was subscribed 2.25 times on the third and final day. The earlier offer size, excluding the anchor book, was 4.24 million shares.

The offer size changed after the company trimmed its anchor book as foreign portfolio investors were not eligible to participate in the offer as per directions from certain custodians to merchant bankers, IEX said in a statement on Wednesday. As a result, it added the 1.03 million shares it had previously set aside for foreign anchor investors to the portion earmarked for qualified institutional buyers.

The company stressed that the change in the anchor book size was due to regulations instead of any pricing concerns.

Indian regulations cap foreign portfolio investors’ stake in a commodity exchange at 23%. Foreign portfolio investors, however, can invest in the company after the shares are listed on the bourses.

At the end of bidding, the quota of shares reserved for retail investors in the IPO was subscribed 2.54 times. The portion set aside for institutional buyers was subscribed 2.55 times. However, the quota of shares reserved for non-institutional investors, comprising corporate bodies and wealthy investors, received bids for only 85% of the shares on offer.